Adjustable plate hanger



March 6, 1956 F. .1. PETzKE ADJUSTABLE PLATE HANGER Filed June 9, 1952 United States PatentOi ADJUSTABLE PLATE HANGER Franklin I. Petzke, Minneapolis, Minn.

Application June 9, 1952, Serial No. 292,456

1 Claim. (Cl. 248-30) This invention relates to adjustable plate `and dish hangers. t

A number of different types of plate hangers have been designed which permit the mounting of platesv and dishes on a wall surface to facilitate displaying the same. However, all of these hangers are limited to substantially uniform plate diameters andV are relatively bulky when packaged for shipment. v

It is an object of my present invention to provide a novel and improved, highly eiiicient plate hanger adapted to be adjustably arranged to permit secure anchoring of a number of plates having different and widely varying diameters.

It is another object of my invention to provide a plate hanger having a multiplicity of plate retaining hook elements pivotally interconnected to permit the same to be compactly collapsed for shipment.

More specifically, it is an object of my invention to provide a plate hanger adapted to be easily and quickly adjusted to a wide variety of different plate sizes and having three elongated anchoring arms pivotally interconnected at their inner portions and provided with releasable clamping means permitting longitudinal adjustment of each elongated anchoring arm to thereby facilitate adjustment for a wide variety of plate diameters while permitting extremely compact collapsing thereof for shipment.

These and other objects and advantages of my invention will more fully appear from the following description made in connection with the accompanying drawings wherein like reference characters refer to the same or similar parts throughout the several views and in which:

Fig. l is a front elevational view of my new plate hanger showing a plate clamped therein by dotted lines;

Fig. 2 is a central vertical sectional view taken substantially along the line 2-2 of Fig. l and showing the plate partially in elevation;

Fig. 3 is a fragmentary enlarged view as viewed along the line 3--3 of Fig. 1 and showing the pivotal adjustable clamp in detail;

Fig. 4 is a front elevational view showing the screw clamp elements in spread-apart exploded relation;

Fig. 5 is a top plan view of the respective parts shown in Fig. 4; and

Fig. 6 is a front elevational view of my new plate hanger in collapsed position.

As illustrated in the accompanying drawings, I provide a plate hanger having a multiplicity of retaining arms such as the three elongated arms 8, 9 and 10. In the form shown, each of said arms is constructed from any easily formed material such as wire and said arms have plate receiving hooks 8a, 9a, and lila respectively formed on the outer end portions thereof. Elongated loops 8b and 9b are respectively formed on the inner ends of said arms 8 and 9, as by doubling the wire back upon itself to form the same, and closing the outer ends of said loops as by twisting the end portions of the wire around the 2,737,361 Patented Mar. 6, 1956 ICC adjacent intermediate portions as at 8c and 9c respectively.

The arm 10 is s'lidably mounted for longitudinal shifting movement on a supporting shank structure 11 having an adjustment loop 11a at the bottom thereof and a hanger supporting loop 11b at the top thereof. The entire shank rstructure is made from a single elongated piece of wire doubled 'back upon itself at the mid-point thereof to form the supporting lloop 11b and extending downwardly therefrom in parallel side by side relation for a substantial distance adjacent the lower portion of arm 10 and then spreading apart at the lower portion thereof to form the adjustment loop A11a with the extreme lower ends thereof twisted together as at 11e.

A pivot such as 'the clamping screw 12 is provided for interconnecting the inner end portions of the arms 8 and 9 with the inner end of shank structure 11 at the respective elongated loops 8b, 9b and 11a. The clamping pivot 12 has a pair of opposed ears or flange segments 13 formed in inwardly extending relation from the head 12a thereof, said ears 13 extending inwardly in opposed relation to engage opposed side portions of one of said elongated loops, such as the loop 8b, best shown in Fig. 3. These flange segments or ears 13 are, however, short enough so as not to interfere with the free rotational movement of the loops 8b, 9b and 11a when the clamping screw 12 is not tightened into clamping position. A ilanged washer 14 is provided for the outer loop on the other side from said loop 8b and, in the form shown, the loop 9b is adapted to be received between the flanges of washer 14, which flanges are also short enough to permit free rotation of loop 9b without permitting the spreading of the yieldable wire portions which form the same. A clamping nut 15 is threadably received on the free end of screw 12 and is adapted to securely clamp all of said loops tightly together when the same have been adjusted in the desired extended and angularly disposed relation.

In the form shown, the hook arm 10 is mounted for longitudinal shifting movement adjacent the side by side portions of the shank structure 11 and a resilient tensioning member, such as the spring 16, surrounds all three wire portions and is retained thereon by a retaining hook 10b at the inner end of arm 10, thus, for any particular adjustment of the lengths of arms 8, 9 and shank structure 11 the resiliently shiftable movement of arm E0 facilitates accommodation of a number of different plate sizes. However, if this adjustment is insufficient, the nut 15 may be loosened and the arms 8 and 9 shifted outwardly or inwardly along with the shank structure 11 to obtain the desired spaced relation between the hooks 8a, 9a and 10a and obviously the desired angular relation between the arms 8 and 9 and the shank structure 11 may be easily and quickly adjusted at the same time. When the desired adjustment has been made, obviously the nut 15 is merely tightened to positively hold all of said loops and arms in the desired position and a plate may be then mounted in securely anchored relation between the hooks 8a, 9a and 10a and the entire hanger with the plate supported thereon may be hung from any suitable support such as the hook 16, shown in Fig. 2, and received in the supporting loop 11b.

It will be seen that I have provided an extremely simple, yet highly eflicient, and easily adjustable plate hanger which is adapted to support an extremely wide variety of different plate sizes by merely adjusting the relative positions of the plate-engaging hooks.

It will, of course, be understood that various changes may be made n the form, details, arrangement and proportions of the parts without departing from the scope of my invention which, generally stated, consists in the matter shown and described herein and set forth in the appended claim.

What I claim is:

As an article of manufacture, a plate hanger comprising a multiplicity of elongated supporting structures, each made entirely from a single elongated piece of wire, a resiliently yieldable plate-engaging and retaining hook carried by one of said arms and longitudinally extensibile thereon, plate engaging hook means integrally formed from said wire at the outer ends of the other arms, the inner portion of the wire forming each of said last mentioned arm structures being doubled back upon itself with the free end thereof connected to an intermediate portion of the wire to form an elongated closed interconnection loop at the inner end of each of said last mentioned arm structures, the rst mentioned arm structure on which the yieldably extensible plate engaging hook is mounted having the outer end portion therof formed by the wire thereof being doubled back upon itself to produce a closed supporting loop with the inner ends of said wire being connected with a portion thereof spaced apart to form a closed interconnection loop at the inner end portion of said arm structure, a releasable clamping pivot pin assembly comprising a screw threaded member having an enlarged head with retaining ears only long enough to engage the side portions of one of said loops with the screw threaded portion thereof extending through all of said loops, a flanged washer having ilanges only long enough to engage the wire elements forming the adjacent interconnection loop and permitting free rotation of each individual loop and arm structure about said pin as an axis, and an internally threaded nut member releasably clamping said head and said washer together to hold said arm structures in the desired adjusted position to permit not only radial adjustment of the arms but also permitting the peripheral spacing between the outer ends thereof to be adjusted for compact packaging and eicient gripping of the plate.

References Cited in the ie of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS D. 137,205 Petzke Feb. 8, 1944 540,044 Cornell May 28, 1895 1,106,856 Wright Aug. 11, 1914 1,307,240 Christopher June 17, 1919 1,631,831 Palmer-Jones June 7, 1927 1,677,376 Filliox July 17, 1928 2,467,997 Sheker Apr. 19, 1949 2,508,841 Schreibman May 23, 1950 FOREIGN PATENTS 5,697 Great Britain Mar. 23, 1892 19,069 Denmark of 1914 

